Quid pro quo for Yoder’s legislative actions, donations?

Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Overland Park, is the subject of an ethics complaint by a watchdog group alleging that he received campaign donations from the payday loan industry in the weeks surrounding his support of legislation that removed regulations on payday lenders, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Yoder received $24,800 in campaign contributions shortly before and after co-sponsoring a bill in 2011 to change the oversight of payday lenders. In 2013, Yoder signed a letter urging the federal government to end an investigation into money laundering and fraud in the payday loan industry, and he co-sponsored another bill that a Treasury Department official testified would eliminate some consumer safeguards from payday loans. Yoder received $36,757 in campaign contributions from the payday lending industry during this same time. The newspaper reported that Yoder’s office declined to comment on the allegations. – Phillip Brownlee